Fyre Festival organisers sued for $100 million
The organisers of the Fyre Festival in Bahamas have been hit with a $100m (£78m) lawsuit by one of the attendees.Co-founder Billy McFarland and Ja Rule are being sued for fraud, negligent representation and breach of contract.
The event was cancelled after squalid conditions were documented on social media. and performers
Organisers have apologised and offered refunds to all the festival-goers, insisting the event was not a scam.
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— Ja Rule (@Ruleyork) April 28, 2017
However, the duo is accused of subjecting festival goers to “dangerous conditions” at a luxury festival that organisers allegedly knew was doomed.
In the lawsuit, filed by lawyer Mark Geragos on behalf of attendee Daniel Jung, the many shortcomings of the festival are mapped out via eyewitness reports and social media postings, providing a tableaux of just how poorly conceived and planned the festival was.
“The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among the attendees – suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions – that was close to The Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies than Coachella, the court filing said.”
We have been locked indoors with no air NO FOOD and NO water #fyrefestival #fyrefest fyrefraud pic.twitter.com/wg5pZmSvnx
— Lamaan (@LamaanGallal) April 28, 2017
“Festival-goers survived on bare rations, little more than bread and a slice of cheese, and tried to escape the elements in the only shelter provided by Defendants: small clusters of ‘FEMA tents,’ exposed on a sand bar, that were soaked and battered by wind and rain.”
The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/I8d0UlSNbd
— Tr3vor (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
“We have been deluged with calls from people with horror stories,” Geragos told Rolling Stone. “We will be expanding the scope of our case dramatically and we are pursuing other remedies as well.”
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The lawsuit also alleges that McFarland and Ja Rule knew that the festival was troubled but proceeded anyway, putting festival goers in danger.
The Fyre Festival marketed itself as a “once-in-a-lifetime” musical experience in the Bahamas with beach cabanas and gourmet cuisine.
Tickets to the two-weekend event on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas, cost from $1,200 to over $100,000. Up to 7,000 people were expected to attend.
It launched on Instagram with a video featuring models Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski sailing on a luxury yacht.
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